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Author Topic: Don Was Sessions - can someone tell me the story?  (Read 10565 times)
HeyJude
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« Reply #50 on: June 15, 2015, 12:53:23 PM »

Does anybody remember the timeframe of that story told by a musician/writer who Carl had brought along to witness Carl doing a session with Brian for “Proud Mary?” My recollection is that it pre-dated the late 1995 Paley/Was group sessions.

I’m hopeful that the biography on Carl coming out at some point later this year (presumably) will fill in the gaps as far as what Carl’s deal was in the late 80’s and 90’s. When he left the band in 1981, he seemed more than willing to mention in interviews that two of his big issues was the declining live show (setlist and performance quality), and the lack of motivation to do more studio work. When Carl returned in 1982, the setlist got a bit more interesting and the live show presentation improved. They didn’t start doing a huge amount of studio work, and eventually the live show settled into a generally solid but unadventurous mode.

By the later 90’s, it was Al who appeared to be (impotently) more vocal about the setlist, stage presentation, and eventually the business setup the tour was using, while Carl seemed to back off and let Mike take over. While this sort of thing may not have been a *major* factor in the Was/Paley group stuff not coming to fruition, it may have played a role, just in terms of not being super pro-active about getting a new album done, or writing more material, or doing something different with the touring presentation.

I mentioned in some other threads that I also have noticed that, however much Brian disavowed it and however much people knew it was cooked up by Landy, that Brian’s 1991 “autobiography” damaged his already-tenuous relationship with the rest of the band, including Carl. Even after Landy was gone, Brian did little with the group for a few years after.
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Wirestone
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« Reply #51 on: June 15, 2015, 12:55:46 PM »

Thing is, Brian did very little press from 92-95. And celeb media was very different then. I don't recall him ever being pressed on the point.

BW isn't always great at taking responsibility.
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Lonely Summer
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« Reply #52 on: June 15, 2015, 02:38:12 PM »

Thing is, Brian did very little press from 92-95. And celeb media was very different then. I don't recall him ever being pressed on the point.

BW isn't always great at taking responsibility.
I didn't see/hear ANYTHING about Brian after the separation from Landy, until early 1995, when the Don Was film was mentioned in Rolling Stone. Honestly, without Landy and his team around to supervise Brian, I expected the worst - back to the old drug and booze habits. When I saw his interview in The History of Rock 'N' Roll that spring, I was not surprised to see he had gained weight, and seemed as spacey as ever. Seeing him in IJWMFTT relieved my fears for the most part. He seemed more coherent - for the most part - than he had in the Primetime Live interview, and there was finally the promise of new music from him again.
Carl in the 90's remains a puzzle. As far as I can tell, he may have been working on Like A Brother around the same time as SIP, so maybe he was just resigned to the BB's being Mike's band, and any creativity for himself would have to be put into outside projects. You can only fight the uphill battle for so long before you just get worn down, and I think that's how he felt in the 90's. The Beach Boys had become, for better or worse, "America's Band", the traveling jukebox of sun, surf and sand, and the only thing he could do was at least make sure the music was played properly, the way it was supposed to be.
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lee
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« Reply #53 on: June 15, 2015, 03:09:12 PM »

Carl in the 90's remains a puzzle. As far as I can tell, he may have been working on Like A Brother around the same time as SIP, so maybe he was just resigned to the BB's being Mike's band, and any creativity for himself would have to be put into outside projects. You can only fight the uphill battle for so long before you just get worn down, and I think that's how he felt in the 90's. The Beach Boys had become, for better or worse, "America's Band", the traveling jukebox of sun, surf and sand, and the only thing he could do was at least make sure the music was played properly, the way it was supposed to be.

I have no idea either but I do agree that this very well could be the case. You also have to consider that during the '90s Carl was occupied with trying to keep the band together, getting Brian away from Landy and he wasn't feeling well himself (I read somewhere that he may have started feeling bad at some point in  '95). He may have been taking care of his mother at some point too before she passed away (I have no idea if he did or not). I feel like Carl had quite the weight on his shoulders in the later years and those things were much more important than adding rarities to the setlist or having artistic control over an album (that probably wouldn't sell well anyway).
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